


THE M A Z E of my design

by Astroclicker



Category: Club Penguin
Genre: EMOTIONAL BREAKDOWN AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, Gary is dying lm AO, Humanzied, I'm fuckjing dying, Major character death - Freeform, OH YEAH THEY'RE HUMANZIED, This is my first work and i'm uploaded a dumb thing about suffering penguin magical girls, idk a character has a break down lmao, yeah the GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF VIOLENCE is at the end lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-24 20:19:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16647083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astroclicker/pseuds/Astroclicker
Summary: Gary suffers





	THE M A Z E of my design

**Author's Note:**

> Idk I wanted to start posting my writes I did... So, here's this... I'm sort of dying you guys

Gary woke up on the floor, dazed and sore, unsure what happened. He blinked a few times and glanced around the area. He noticed he was in the lab, it was dark and many things around him looked destroyed as if something he created had blown up not long ago. Furrowing his eyebrows at the thought, he concluded that maybe that was what happened. It would explain the mess around him. Gary attempted to sit up but flinched and stopped as pain shot through his left arm and stomach, making him flop back down onto the floor with a whine. He hissed in pain and finally was able to push himself back up. Stumbling as he did, he caught himself on a nearby desk and let himself rest there, still a little dazed and light headed. He looked down at himself and saw how dirty he looked, from the soot and dust that was from... Whatever machine that had exploded.

Suddenly, the doors busted open and there stood Dot and Jpg, looking extremely concerned and confused. "Oh my god, what happened?!" Dot yelled as she quickly rushed up to Gary and immediately checked if he was alright. "Are you okay, what on earth happened?!" She asked, holding Gary's arms.

Gary simply breathed out a laugh and brushed Dots hands away from him. "Yes, yes, I'm fine." He assured. "I'm only a bit sore." He admitted, rubbing his arm as he did. Gary paused and attempted to find an explanation as to what happened, but his mind went blank as he did. Jpg around the lab with a raised eyebrow and paused.

"What exploded?" He asked. Gary opened his mouth, ready to reply but stopped.

"I don't know," Gary admitted as he glanced around. However, judging from the amount of damage and soot that was around, he had to assume it was probably a big machine that exploded or something. He couldn't be exactly sure at all. "However, whatever it was it had to be a big machine." He pointed out, repeating his thoughts.

Dot nodded. "Yeah, I bet it was." She added as she also glanced around the area.

Jpg crossed his arms and sighed, Looking back over to Gary. "Well, whatever it was... It shook the entire building." He pointed out. Gary nervously chuckled and fiddled around with the fabric of his lab coat, apologizing for the loud noise he created. Quickly, he was reassured by the two and told not to worry about it. However, As Jpg looked around, he realized something a little odd. "There are... No explosive things in here at all." He said, obviously confused. Quickly, Dot and Gary glanced around and realized the same thing. There were no big machines or anything that could be considered explosive in the lab at all... Which was weird all on its own. Jpg paused and breathed out a laugh. "Although, it could have been something like your Orange Juice 1000 you made a while back."

Gary shook his head and opened his mouth to speak but stopped. "I... I'm not sure. I can't be sure." He said with worry. He breathed out nervously and shifted awkwardly. "Ooh dear... You don't think the Director heard the explosion, right?" He asked.  
Dot and Jpg paused and both chuckled. "No, I don't think so." Dot replied in an obviously sarcastic tone, jokingly. "There's no way she would have heard that." She continued. Gary smiled at her joking reply and sighed, trying to remember what happened. As he did, a vague foggy memory began creeping up on him and trying to think about it, hurt his head. He pinched the bridge of his nose and quietly hissed in pain. Worried, Dot and Jpg glanced over to him and asked if he was okay.  
Soon, Gary breathed out a laugh and nodded. "Yeah... But maybe I should go and tell the Director and..." He glanced around the area and dropped his arms to his sides. "Clean up..." He finished. Dot smiled and glanced over to Jpg quickly and back to Gary.  
"Would you like us to help you clean up?" She asked, tilting her head slightly. Gary paused and smiled back at her.

"That would be nice." He replied. The two simply nodded and told Gary they would be back, explaining they were going to the Janitors Closet to grab whatever cleaning supplies they think would be necessary to clean up and finally, left the scientist alone. Gary breathed in and choked on the smoke that still lingered around the lab and coughed, waving his hand in front of him. Glancing around, he still attempted to find whatever had caused this mess to happen, finding it a bit strange he couldn't remember what happened. Although, it was probably understandable. He most likely hit his head when it all happened or something...

Gary walked over to the toppled over trashcan and picked it up, picking up whatever he saw which looked like trash or something unsalvagable. As Gary eyed the ground, adjusting his glasses as he did, he stopped at the sight of a broken piece of something he didn't recognize.

Kneeling down, his knees cracking as he did, he picked up said piece and observed it. It was something he didn't particularly recognize at all. It looked like glass with some sort of intricate metal attached to it... However, he couldn't be sure. It was broken. Shrugging it off, he put the piece into his pocket for now and continued picking up whatever was trash. However, he continued to find more pieces that looked like it belonged to the first piece he found. Confused, Gary furrowed his eyebrows and stood back up, walking over to one of the desks and digging into some of the drawers, looking for some sort of container or something to place the pieces into.

Not long after, he found a small fabric baggy and quickly, he dug into his pocket and dropped the piece in. Again, he kneeled back down and began picking up more of the pieces he found and tossing them into the little baggy. He wasn't sure what or where exactly these pieces came from, but for all he knew, they could have come from a machine he created which was destroyed in the explosion. However, looking around... He noticed he couldn't find the mark where the explosion was. Usually, there would be a mark of where it could have been, leaving a burnt mark on the floor... But he couldn't spot it anywhere at all. Gary sighed and took off his glasses, wiping off the soot on his glasses with his equally dirty sleeve and placed them back on, continuing to collect said pieces into the bag and the trash into the bin.

As he did, Dot and Jpg finally walked back into the room, holding the cleaning supplies they said they could get. Dot smiled. "We're back." She called out.

"Sorry we took a while," Jpg said, holding a bucket. "We had to find the Janitor keys." He explained, placing down the bucket, which was filled with water. It splashed a bit and got the floor wet.

Gary turned around, a little surprised from their entrance, but smiled at them. "Oh, it's okay." He assured, turning back around and continuing to pick up stuff. The two began picking up whatever and placed them into the bin, but once they got to the small pieces, Gary stopped them. "Wait! Put those pieces into this bag." He requested, holding out the small bag. It was purple with a rope around the edges as decoration but also worked as a pull string to close the bag. Dot and Jpg simply obliged without question and began placing the pieces into the bag and continued cleaning up.

"Did you figure out how you're going to explain all of this to the Director?" Jpg asked, looking over to Gary, who paused at his question and shrugged.

"No, I haven’t." He admitted, looking down to the floor, still looking for the smaller pieces of whatever the object was. "I don't remember what happened before I woke up on the floor over there." He continued, gesturing to his left as he continued picking up stuff. "But, Aunt Arctic would understand... I know that."

The two looked over to him and gave him a pleasant smile. "Yeah, I'm sure she would." Dot said, picking up a piece. She looked down at it and made a face, showing it off to Jpg, who simply shrugged in return. "Gary, what is this?" She asked, holding up the glass piece. This one had an intricate piece of metal connected to it.

Looking over, Gary paused and stared at it for a moment. "I--... Don't know." He replied. "I'm not really sure where it could have come from but... Perhaps I can figure out sometime later." The two simply nodded, Dot dropping the piece into the bag. 20 minutes passed and finally, the group got what they thought were all the pieces and finally stood back up.

Jpg groaned as he stretched his back, obviously sore from bending over awkwardly. "God-- That was tedious to find all those tiny pieces." Jpg pointed out as he continued to stretch. Gary quietly agreed and looked down into the bag and stared at them for a moment, as if he were trying to count them.

Although, for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to count at the moment. Breathing out his nose, he looked up at the two and tightened to bag strings. "I should go and inform the Director with what happened now." He said, pointing behind him with his thumb. The two silently agreed with him, telling him they would stay behind and clean up the mess. Gary pursed his lips, immediately a little nervous, about to argue against them.

"Don't worry, Gary!" Dot continued. "We'll be fine with this. Just go to the Director and explain what happened, so you don't keep her waiting." She pressed on.

"A… Are you sure?" Gary asked, tilting his head slightly. "I can help, I did create this mess. So, I should be the one cleaning this all u--"

"No, don't worry." Jpg interrupted, placing his hand onto Gary's back and began ushering him to the door, with Dot following not far behind. "We got you covered, Gary. Just go and talk to her and we will take care of this for you." Jpg assured, smiling as he did. "She is understanding." Gary paused, staring at the two. Seem like they were pretty adamant on staying behind. So, he sighed and nodded in defeat. Honestly, he was simply making up an excuse to stay behind and avoid Aunt Arctic. He wasn't really sure why he wanted to avoid it, but they seemed to really know that he was, even if he didn't know it consciously. Which was a little weird to think about...

The two smiled at him and quietly closed the door with a soft click, leaving Gary alone in the hallway. He glanced down at the bag he still held and stared at it for a long moment, unsure what to think of it. So, he simply folded the bag and easily stuffed it into his pocket, since there was not much stuff inside. Glancing around the place, he squinted. Something deep inside him told him something... Wasn't right. However, he couldn't really explain why at all, nor did he really care right now. He had to go to the Director.

Shrugging off the feeling, he only assumed he most likely did hurt himself when the explosion happened, a little disappointed in himself for getting hurt. Gary sighed and walked down the hall, glancing into every passing room and cubical he passed. There was not much to see in any of them, besides the fact that they were exactly how he expected them to be. Which was a simple little office-like place, either empty of any occupants or simply one or two agents inside every so often; Who turned and smiled at Gary, greeting him as he passed. Either that or some wouldn't notice him at all, continuing to work on whatever they were doing, too busy to really notice him at all. He scratched the side of his head and swallowed, not really sure why everything felt so off. The EPF simply felt very... Empty. But at all the same time it didn't? Every step he took, his footsteps echoed throughout the hall, leaving a sense of uncertainty. The floors and walls looked much too clean and the noises from the office sounded Artificial, for a lack of a better word. Again, he wasn't sure why, but it simply just did. Gary shook his head and tried not to think about it for the rest of the way.

Finally, he made it to his destination, stopping in front of two very large doors he didn't remember being there. He thought that there had been some sort of construction that happened he was unaware of. Placing his hand onto the door, Gary stopped, hesitating to open it. He wondered how the Director would react and if she would actually be crossed with him... However, that was a silly thought. He knew the Director very well and knew she wouldn't be at all. Jpg and Dot were right, she is a very understanding person. She understood all the other times there was an explosion in the EPF and simply told Gary to be careful.  
  
... So, why should he worry? With a sigh, Gary finally pushed the doors open, which were weirdly heavy. He stopped once the doors opened and to his surprise, The Director was already there, seeming to be waiting. Aunt Arctic stood at a desk, facing away, watching something Gary couldn't see on the wall, but it must have been some sort of surveillance footage or something. She looked to be in deep thought about something. Gary was surprised she was here. He expected to simply come to a room and speak to a screen, like usual. He pursed his lips and stepped into the room, slowing closing the doors behind him. Aunt Arctic turned her head slightly, hearing Gary enter the room. "Good afternoon, Gary." She greeted as she turned around, giving him a pleasant smile.  
  
Gary paused and let out a nervous chuckle. "Oh, um... Hello." He replied, clearing his throat. He opened his mouth to speak but was quickly interrupted.  
  
"I assume you're here because of the explosion, correct?" Aunt Arctic asked, adjusting her glasses as she spoke. He paused and soon, quickly nodded.  
  
"Y-…Yes, exactly. I'm terribly sorry if I had caused any sort of disturbance--"  
  
Again, Aunt Arctic interrupted him by raising her hand, effectively silencing Gary. There was a short pause before she smiled at him. "It's okay... You haven't caused any disturbance at all." She assured, looking down to the desk, where a tea set sat on top, which Gary failed to notice at first. She smiled and gestured to one of the chairs nearby. "Why not take a seat with me and we can have some tea together."  
  
Gary hesitated, his mouth slightly agape as he quickly tried to find an answer. Instead, he nodded in reply and walked over to the desk, awkwardly. Aunt Arctic looked at him up and down and chuckled. "My, my, must have been a pretty nasty blast." She said, smiling at him. He paused and looked down at himself and finally noticed how messy he looked. His lab coat was covered in patches of soot and other substances he failed to recognize. Nervously, he chuckled and begun dusting himself off, apologizing for the mess that he was in. Aunt Arctic simply brushed it off and assured him it was alright, chuckling as she did.  
  
Soon, Gary finally sat down, scooting a little closer to the desk. Looking up at Aunt Arctic, she finally took a seat and handed Gary a cup, who nervously took it. Quietly, she picked up the pot of tea and begun pouring him some, which took a surprisingly long amount of time and Gary was surprised the cup didn't overfill. Soon, she finished and begun filling her own cup. Again, silently, Gary watched, unsure what to say as she soon finished. She glanced up to him, pausing for a moment and silently asked if he'd like some sugar, pointing towards the cubes which lay on top each other in a small glass bowl, which had some ornate design in the glass. Quickly, Gary shook his head. Aunt Arctic gestured to another item, which was a cream or milk carton. Again, Gary simply shook his head.  
  
Aunt Arctic nodded and only continued to smile pleasantly as she poured her own preference of sugar and cream into her own cup. Gary watched her stir her cup of tea, listening to the clinking sound of the spoon lightly tapping the edges of the cup. He wasn't sure why, but the sound and look of this action really interested him. Something about it seemed very fascinating and he took in every detail he saw. He noticed when she stirred her tea, she would stir a little too quickly ever so slightly, letting some of the tea slowly drip over the edges of the cup. He watched how the tea looked as it was stirred, the whirlpool which formed as she stirred continued, as she finally took out the silver spoon, tapping it on the edge of the cup, creating the same clinking sound and placed it down.  
  
Gary blinked and looked down into his own cup. There he saw his reflection in the steaming hot tea, finally taking in how he looked since he had woken up. He looked messy and his glasses were cracked. He wondered how he didn't notice the crack at all but decided to dismiss it for now and instead, wiped his face with his sleeve since there was a bit of leftover soot on his cheek.  
  
"How are you feeling, Gary?" Aunt Arctic asked, finally breaking the long silence. He looked up at her and paused. He simply shrugged and touched the rim of his cup.  
  
"I'm fine." He replied. Aunt Arctic hummed and looked down into her cup of tea, lightly tipping the cup side the side, making the liquid stir. She glanced up at him.  
  
"Is that so?" She asked, obviously a little doubtful of Gary's words. He breathed out a laugh and continued to fiddle around with his cup. A little droplet had begun to slowly slide down the side of his cup, from when the liquid was poured and Gary poked it with his finger, smearing the warm small amount of tea on the cup. Aunt Arctic tilted her head at him and gave him a worried look. "Gary, you're not very good at hiding how you feel." She continued. She placed down the cup and leaned forward. "Tell me, what’s bothering you?"  
  
Gary paused and simply shrugged, taking a sip of the hot tea, ignoring the fact he burnt his tongue on the liquid. Lightly hissing, he clicked his tongue and pursed his lips. He paused and shrugged. "I don't... Really know." He admitted, placing down the cup. "In the lab... I woke up after the explosion or ... Whatever it was and..." He breathed out a laugh and shrugged. "I'm guessing it's probably because I hurt myself or something, but something doesn't feel right." He explained.  
Aunt Arctic raised an eyebrow. "Oh dear. Do you need some sort of medical attention?" She asked, becoming worried as she did. Gary stopped and nervously laughed, shaking his head as he did.  
"No, no! Not what I meant..." He continued. Gary paused and attempted to find a way to explain. He scratched the back of his head and breathed out a laugh. "I don't know, though... Something simply doesn't feel... 'Right'." He continued. Aunt Arctic gave him a confused look as he continued to try and explain. Simply resorting to saying that something felt missing. Aunt Arctic nodded and smiled at him.  
  
"Oh dear, Gary..." She breathed out a laugh and adjusted her glasses. "There's nothing wrong, I can assure you." Aunt Arctic stood up from her seat and walked over to him and placed her hands onto his shoulders. "There is nothing missing and everything is well as it has been before." She continued. Gary looked up at her and flickered his eyes around the room, unsure how to respond. "Just don't worry about it, okay?" She smiled at him, tilting her head as she did. "There's nothing to worry about."  
Gary blinked at her and smiled back as he attempted to believe what she said was true. Again, her words simply didn't feel true or real. But he wasn't going to make a big fuss about it and argue otherwise with Aunt Arctic. So, he left it be. Soon, the conversation went as normal, however, Gary wasn't as responsive as he would have liked, but it just kind of happened. Aunt Arctic didn't seem to mind though. She kept asking him if he was feeling alright and saying if he would like some more tea or something to eat. Gary simply shook his head in reply, not wanting to eat anything. For some reason, the taste of the tea didn't... Satisfy at all. It just didn't feel like something he should drink. So, he finally stopped and placed the cup down, announcing he was finished.  
  
Aunt Arctic simply raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh?" She curiously said, looking over to his cup and seeing it was still mostly full. "You barely touched your tea." She pointed out. Gary shrugged and nervously breathed out a laugh.  
"Yeah-- I'm... Not thirsty." He admitted, getting up from his seat. "I'm going to... Go back to the lab now," Gary said, walking back to the doors, still facing the Director. Aunt Arctic simply blinked at him, confusion splashed across her face. Soon, she simply smiled and nodded, saying her goodbye to him, as he opened the door and left, closing it behind him.  
  
Once in the hall, Gary stood there and sighed. He walked away and glanced behind him to the doors, even more on edge from the whole conversation. He couldn't help but think about how off everything seemed to be. He simply couldn't put his finger on it on what exactly was wrong and it bothered him so much. As he walked down the hall back to his lab, he glanced into the same cubicles and offices he passed before, seeing the same agents who were there, as expected. Again, they all greeted him as before or simply didn't pay any attention to him.

... However, once passing a few more cubicles, he noticed something odd about them. Furrowing his eyebrows, he watched intently as he passed each cubical, looking closely at each of the agents faces he saw. They all continued to greet him every time he passed one and soon, Gary felt his heart begin to race as he noticed an odd detail. Each of them had the same carbon copy face, all giving him the same smiles as he passed. Their smiles only seemed to become much sinister once he noticed, with each one he passed. Quickly, Gary turned away, not wanting to look at them anymore as he quickened his pace.  
  
Just as he noticed this, he began to hear faint voices, yelling indistinguishable words he couldn't understand at all. He began to hear his heartbeat in his ears, as panic immediately took over him as he rushed down the halls, which only seemed to become much more enclosed than before, setting off his claustrophobia. The voices were becoming much louder, making his head hurt and unable to think clearly as his panic only grew. He dashed down the hall, stumbling on his feet as he did. All he had in mind was to get back to his lab. It was the only place he knew that could possibly make him feel safe at this moment.  
  
In his panic, he had failed to notice Rookie walking down the hall towards his direction and slammed into him, making both yell in surprise and topple over. Quickly Gary sat up and looked around confused, not sure what he just ran into. Rookie sat up and shook his head, looking over to Gary with an equally confused look. "Woah, Gary!" Rookie exclaimed with surprise. "Are you okay?!" He asked. Gary shook his head, breathing heavily, watching Rookie carefully as the taller man stood up from the floor. Rookie laughed and said something Gary couldn't understand at the moment, but put his hand out, offering help to Gary as he still sat on the floor.

  
Again, Rookie spoke out and Gary didn't quite catch what he said. The voices were too loud and were overlapping each other, making it hard to focus on anything outside of his own thoughts. Gary held his head as he tried to block out the loud voices that were now beginning to yell at him, scream at him, begging him to come back to them, telling him to snap out of it. He began to shake, unsure what to do or say, he was practically paralyzed.  
"Is there something wrong, what happened?" Rookies voice soon came up. Looking up, Gary saw the genuinely concerned look Rookie had. "Here, let me help you." Rookie said, holding out his hand.  
  
Hesitantly, Gary looked down at Rookies' hand and soon held it, letting himself be pulled up. Rookie tilted his head at him and dusted Gary's lab coat off, probably thinking the soot was from him somehow. Gary tried speaking, but only a muttered slurred speech came out. Rookie breathed out a laugh and tilted his head at him, but his smile quickly faded as worry took over him. "You're not looking to hot, Gary..." Rookie admitted, placing his hand onto Gary's back. Gary simply shook his head, swallowing hard, realizing his mouth had become much drier than before.  
  
"I--I just--" Gary stuttered and cleared his throat. Although, he couldn't finish his sentence. Rookie stared at him for a short moment, seeming to be unsure what exactly to do but nodded. He paused and looked up at Rookie, who smiled at him with his familiar goofy smile. Gary stopped and flickered his eyes around the room, noticing it suddenly become much more spacious than it was previously, somehow making Rookie look much taller than he was before. He stopped as he looked up at the taller man, who only continued to smile. Rookie tilted his head at him and raised an eyebrow.

"You looked worried... What are you worried about?" He asked as the area seemed to become darker than it was before. Gary stared at him, unsure what to say or what to do. "There's nothing to worry about, Gary. Are you okay?" Rookie continued.  
Gary blinked a few times, his eyes suddenly going out of focus and quickly, he rubbed them in response. Blinking a few times once more, he looked back up at Rookie and saw that everything was normal once again, greatly confusing Gary once seeing. Soon, the voices disappeared and all was heard was the same artificial office noises he heard before.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Gary glanced around the hallway, which had suddenly become normal as well. However, some objects on the walls, depicting a vague resemblance of Cogs spin in a very jerky fashion, as if someone were flipping images of them on paper, making a very crude animation had shown up, looking very surreal. He blinked at them and looked back over to Rookie, who was still watching him with concern. "... Y-Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine." Gary replied with a sigh, looking around the area, watching these newfound objects that had slowly begun to appear, making themselves obviously known. Gary shivered at the thought of what happened not long ago. Rookie tilted his head at him again, which was followed by a long pause, as he wasn't sure what to say. Soon, he asked him where he was off too in such a rush. Gary breathed out and glanced behind him attempting to calm himself down from whatever happened earlier. "I'm off to the lab." He replied again.

Rookie smiled. "Oh really?" he asked. "Would you want me to follow you?" Without hesitation, Gary nodded in reply. He honestly didn't want to be alone right now, everything wasn't right and he wasn't sure why and it confused and scared him in so many ways than just one. He wanted something to distract himself with and he knew Rookie would have a lot to say, he was naturally a very talkative person. So, ignoring all of this would be fairly easy with Rookie around.  
Quickly, Rookie smiled and nodded, following Gary down the hall and patting his back as a way to comfort him. As they walked, Rookie spoke about random subjects Gary didn't really understand, surprisingly enough, but was relieved to have someone there with him to talk with. Although, somethings that Rookie spoke about caught Gary's attention.

He mentioned about some group of agents who were hired a while back, saying they had to help him and Jetpack Guy with a mission Rookie about searching for a location of something he couldn't exactly remember the name of. He didn't go much into detail about this thing, only saying they were kind of scary and wondered if him, Jpg, and these agents would be able to do it on their own. Soon, he changed the subject, as if he thought Gary knew what he was talking about.  
Gary glanced over to him and made a face, as Rookie continued to talk about it as if it were normal. Soon, he changed the subject to something else once again, talking about the Pizzatron 3000 just absolutely tossing the contents of a pizza all over the place in the plaza, it was a little alarming, Rookie admitted. Gary thought about going over to take a look at it, but that wasn't important right now.

Rookie glanced down to Gary and raised an eyebrow. "Hey, what happened?" He asked. "You're such a mess-- Did something break?" Gary took a quick glance down at himself and breathed out a laugh, dusting himself off a bit more. Gary simply shook his head and briefly explained what happened, making Rookie raise an eyebrow at the strange explanation. "Wow, that's weird." Rookie chuckled. "It's almost like you appeared from elsewhere or something." He joked. Gary breathed out a laugh, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah..." He said, looking over to the wall and viewing the strange surreal images which appeared. What Rookie said did bring something up in his head, but Gary couldn't be exactly sure what exactly it was, since thinking about it made his head hurt. So, he only received a vague and foggy memory. Rubbing his face, he sighed and looked up ahead, spotting the entrance of the lab, which wasn't too far. Finally, it felt like forever Gary had been away from the lab. Although, he was gone for about... He glanced down to the watch he had and viewed it. He was gone for about 20 minutes. Rookie pointed at the door and smiled, pointing out they were not too far and asked if Gary was doing anything.

Gary paused and glanced around the place, noticing a much less subtle difference in the hall. However, he kind of raised an eyebrow at them and stopped in front for the door to the lab and watched the same cogs from before. Obviously, that wasn't right and something was clearly out of place... But now that he thought about it, he actually didn't want to think about it too much, lest he tosses himself into another panic. Finally, he pushed the doors open.  
There in the middle of the lab, was Dot and Jpg. They turned and smiled at Gary and Rookie, obviously happy to see both of them. Gary glanced around the lab and raised an eyebrow at the sight. "We're done!" Dot announced, holding a mop Gary didn't remember seeing them bring in.

"W--... Wow." Gary said, a little astonished at how quickly they had finished cleaning. He kind of expected them to still be cleaning one he got back. He was gone for only about 20 to 25 minutes, so it was to be expected. Jpg walked up to Gary and gently pulled him in, Rookie following just behind and closing the door behind them.

"We found more pieces of that object you wanted to collect," Jpg said, pointing towards the desk. There, in a small pile, was more of the pieces. This time there was a base of what looked to belong to this object. Gary raised an eyebrow, very curious as to what it was and walked towards them. "I'm not really sure why you have a fascination too..." Jpg paused, crossing his arms as he did. "Well, Garbage. But there they are on the table for you." He finished. Gary looked over to him and paused for a moment before slowly turning back to the pieces. Curiously, he picked up what looked like a base and viewed it, turning it around a few times. The base was golden like the other intricate pieces he found earlier. As he examined them, he couldn't help but wonder what this could have been before.

Placing the piece back down, he stared at the pile which sat in front of him. He raised an eyebrow and reached into his pocket, pulling out the small bag from before and opened it, dumping the contents, the pieces clattering against the table like dice. He gathered them and piled them together and stopped. It wasn't a very big pile. So, whatever this was, it had to be a small object. Carefully, Gary swept the pieces into the bag, careful not to cut himself with the small broken glass pieces. Once finished, he glanced over to the three and saw them talking amongst each other. It seemed like Dot and Jpg were explaining to Rookie what happened and the details of when they were cleaning.

He glanced down to the floor and saw the same burnt spot from before. It seemed like they couldn't clean that up, Gary thought. Maybe he could clean that up on his own sometime today. He sighed and leaned against the desk in thought, wondering what had happened earlier with the voices and the carbon copy agents and the... Strange distortions he experienced while walking down the hall. He furrowed his eyebrows at what the voices had said to him. Gary wasn't really sure what they were talking about or what they were referring too.

"Hey, are you sure you're doing alright?" Jpg asked, earning Gary's immediate attention. "Something seems to be bothering you." he continued. Gary blinked and adjusted his cracked glasses and let out a sigh. He shook his head in response, finally admitting that something was, in fact, bothering him.

"... Yeah... I'm not too sure what's... Wrong, however." Gary admitted, crossing his arms. The three paused and all gave Gary a concerned look. He pursed his lips and breathed out, soon explaining what had happened earlier before he ran into Rookie, saying that something obviously wasn't right and he couldn't figure out why.

"Oh, those?" Dot asked. "Yeah, those cogs had been here for some time now." She pointed out. Immediately, Gary gave her confused look, unsure what to say. "And those agents are the new recruits that were hired just last month," she said with a smile. Bewildered, Gary glanced away from her and looked down at the floor in thought. He didn't know any of this at all... Which was strange. He didn't feel like he was having any sort of amnesia. "There's a lot of other things like that around the island." Dot continued. "They sort of appeared overnight," she said with a shrug.

Gary continued to stare at the floor, this time not thinking about anything at all. He didn't know what to think about any of this, seeing that all of this seemed to be normal to them and that they were apparently here for some time now. Soon, he heard them shift around and looked up at them. "Well, I should go now." Jpg started. "I have some errands to do around Headquarters here." He finished, turning on his heels and walking out of the room with Rookie following just behind.

Dot stood there for a moment in silence, looking in the direction Jpg and Rookie had left off too. Dot turned and smiled at Gary, stepping up to him and touching his arm. "There's nothing to worry about, Okay Gary?" she assured. "If you ever need to talk about something that's bothering you, just come to me and we can talk about it, okay?" Gary stared at her for a short moment and nodded in reply. "That's what friends are for." she finished, turning around and leaving the room.

The room became much quieter than it was before and Gary shifted in his place and sighed. He wasn't sure if any of this was right... Standing there for a long time, Gary pursed his lips and thought about what he should work on since that's what he was supposed to do. It was his job to invent things and create machines that can be useful or... Well, sometimes useless. Gary walked over to where he kept his blueprint paper and pulled out a roll, unfolding it and placing it down onto the desk nearby.

It was blue with light blue lines all over it, making a grid pattern on the sheet. He reached over to a pen that was nearby and began drawing without thinking. Line after line, and circle after circle, he began to create a picture of something. Colouring in some of the shapes, the picture began to take shape. It didn't take too long to finish and he stood back to appreciate what he created, smiling as he did. However, his smile faded and he stared at the picture he created.

What he created, looked to be a creature of some sort. It had multiple arms and looked to be wearing a tattered lab coat. It also looked to be... Abnormally tall, despite it being hunched over... It kind of reminded him of an insect of sorts. Gary looked at his hand and back down at the sheet, wondering how he created this without thinking. Soon, the image began to fade, leaving the blueprint blank once again. He blinked and put the pen down, not wanting to somehow draw something like that again.

He wandered around the lab, thinking that he should fix something instead or at least finish something he had laying around. Quickly, he found what he wanted and immediately got to work, opening up a panel on the machine. Gary stopped, staring at the components of the machine, unsure what it was supposed to do or how it was supposed to work. He had no idea what this was even supposed to be.

_Just as he was staring at it, a voice in the back of his mind started making itself known with his quiet insistent voices. It sounded like his own voice and it was... He was degrading himself. The voice called him names and told him he couldn't do this, he couldn't do anything and that he was a failure and that it's pointless nothing matters, nothing you do is going to change anything, you're worthless. Why should you keep going like this, it's stupid and not worth anyone’s time, it’s not going to make a difference, you shouldn't have done anything you did, you should have just stayed home and away from everyone like how you were before._

_Why the hell did you agree into doing this? This is your fault that you're in this mess and that you're going through all of this. All of it is your fault. So, why bother doing anything? It's pointless. It's pointless, It's Pointless, It's Pointless, It's Pointless, It's Pointless its pointless itspointlessitspointlessi'spointlessitspointlessitspointlessitspointlessitspointlessitspointlessitspointlessitspointlessitspointlessitspointlessitspointlessitspointlessitspointlessitspointless--_

Gary gasped and damn nearby fell backwards, but caught himself on the desk, grabbing his chest and making himself steady from his sudden wave of nausea. He let out a sob and grabbed his head, placing his arms on the desk and resting his hand in his hands, breathing in and out as an attempt to calm himself.

"What--" Gary choked out, taking off his glasses and dropping them to the table. He wiped his face and stared intently at the blurry desk, wondering where those thoughts had come out from. They were still there and loud as ever and they were throwing him off and they hurt like a searing hot blade and he wasn't sure why. What did he do? Was there something terrible he did? Probably. Guilt and regret felt like it was eating him alive and it hurt. He didn't want to feel this, what did do, was there something that could bring this pain into the light? He needed to know what was causing him to feel this way so suddenly.

Maybe if he figured out, he can probably put the pain at ease, or something! He just needed to stop this now, it was hurting him as if a physical blade had punctured his chest.

His thoughts began to race as he tried figuring out the source of his problems, or at least something related. However, almost nothing came up and only those painful words came up, leaving his mind muddled. He hugged himself and closed his eyes, slowly sliding to the floor and simply letting the thoughts come, thinking that they will leave eventually. He swallowed hard and stared at the blurry floor, the thoughts louder than ever. They sounded almost like someone else was in the room with him, leaving him with a sense of uncertainty.

The thoughts raced around, hitting him hard with each word they said. Despite him not knowing what they were talking about, he felt as if... They were true. He felt as if he really did do something wrong and that everything he was doing was pointless and that if he were to keep going, he would possibly hurt someone in the process.

Gary tried not to believe it wasn't true, but they were loud. So, in a split-second decision, he yelled and screamed, trying to become louder than the voices. He screamed and screamed for them to stop and that they were lying and it wasn't true, he screamed and yelled and screamed and yelled at the voices over and over again, telling them to go away and leave him alone. It wasn't his fault, he didn't even know what he did, I didn't do anything to deserve this at all, I didn't mean too, it wasn't my fault, I didn't know, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so terribly sorry, I didn't think it would turn out this way, there wasn't anything I could do, there wasn't anything that we could do, it wasn't our fault, we didn't know!

He coughed and realized he practically screamed himself hoarse. However, he continued. The voices were still there and they were becoming much more hostile than they were before. As if they were lashing back him for yelling. Suddenly, hands touched his face which scared him, making him jerk away almost immediately.

"No, no, Gary, It's okay, It's me!" Dots voice came up. "Look at me, Gary." She ordered, cupping his face once again. However, Gary couldn't focus on her or anything else, since he wasn't wearing his glasses and all he could see was a blurry image of her. The voices were louder and were practically screaming back at him, screaming and repeating all the same words over and over again. "Look at me!" She ordered once more. "Gary, look at me-- Guy, get me his glasses, please." Clattering against the table was heard and soon Dot placed his glasses on for him.

Gary’s eyes focused and he saw the terrified and concerned expressions both Dot and Jpg had. "Oh my god, Gary, what's wrong?" Jpg asked. Gary muttered, his thoughts still muddled. He shook his head and swallowed hard, his eyes darting around as he noticed those same cogwheels spinning in a strange way begin to appear on the walls.

"Come here, It's okay." Dot said, pulling Gary close. "God, you scared us so much..." She continued, rubbing his back. "Your screaming was so loud, what were you even talking about?" she asked, looking down at him. Gary muttered nonsensical words, that even he didn't understand. His voice was a bit hoarse and all he could really say was that he was afraid and confused. He didn't know what was wrong. They kept yelling at him and they wouldn't stop. Again, Dot pulled him close and began telling him it was okay and that nothing bad is going to happen to him.

"What were you talking about?" Jpg asked. Gary paused, the voices finally settling down and looked up at Jpg with an unsure look. He shook his head in response and opened his mouth.

"I... I don't know." Gary croaked. "Something isn't right. Something--, everything is wrong." he continued. Jpg paused and glanced away, seeming to be unsure of what Gary was talking about exactly. Soon, Gary pulled himself away from Dot. Swallowing hard, he put on adjusted his glasses and stood there for a moment, still processing everything that had happened. He was honestly afraid. Nothing about this was normal and he knew it. Glancing around, his view stopped at the burnt spot on the floor and he furrowed his eyebrows. Quickly, he dug into his pocket and pulled out the baggy from earlier and stared at it. He blinked and his eyes began darting around the room in thought. He was going to figure out what these pieces are.  
Dot and Jpg raised their eyebrows as they watched Gary get up from the floor and walk over to the desk nearby the burnt area and dump out the pieces from the baggy, letting them clatter against the desk. Gary stared at the pieces, trying to figure out where to start first. Something about these pieces had to be related to... All of this.

"Gary, what are you doing?" Dot asked. "Come here, you're not feeling well," she said, opening her arms. Quickly, Gary shook his head.

"No, I need to... I need to figure something out." Gary said, spreading out the pieces.

Jpg shook his head. "No, obviously whatever had happened earlier is putting you in a state of..." He paused and shook his head. "Something." he continued. "You're not well and you need some sort of medical attention right now." Jpg finished, urging Gary to follow them.

Gary ignored them and watched the pieces for a moment, analyzing them and trying to figure something out. To his luck, the pieces were not too small and all he needed to do was assemble them together like some sort of bizarre jigsaw puzzle. First, he grabbed the biggest piece, which looked like the base and placed it down, grabbing another piece and trying to fit everything together. However, they wouldn't stay in place. So, he reached into one of the drawers and grabbed out his Incredi-Glue 3000.  
Suddenly, Dot and Jpg grabbed Gary's wrist and practically forced him to look at them. "Gary, no." Dot said. "You're only going to hurt yourself, please don't do this." She continued urgency in her voice.

"Please, just come with us. You're going to be fine. It's better this way." Jpg said.

Gary stared at them, unsure what to say. Soon, he yanked himself away from them and shook his head. "I need to figure something out," Gary argued back, giving the two a distraught look. Almost immediately, the two looked panicked.

"No!" They both snapped, making Gary jump.

"Come here, please just come here," Dot said, giving Gary a weak smile that only showed worry and fear. "Please, don't do this to yourself." She continued.

"Please, It's better this way," Jpg said. "It's best to not be aware."

Gary furrowed his eyebrows and began to become much more agitated than he was before. They were obviously hiding something from him and it had something to do with these pieces. "We didn't think you would put any sort of thought into those pieces, Gary." Dot said. "You're not the type to pay attention to small things." She put out her hand and gave a nervous smile, her voice beginning to shake. "Give us the pieces, Gary." she nervously ordered, her hand now shaking. Gary frowned and shook his head, pushing her hand away. Suddenly, Dot became hostile and stomped at him. "Give me the pieces, Gary!" She demanded, her voice much stronger than it was before and making Gary flinch.

Quickly, Gary gathered the pieces and swept them into the back and shoved the bag into his pants pocket. This immediately made Dot much more hostile than before and she grabbed Gary's wrist and yanked him closer, making him yelp in surprise. Jpg stepped back, surprised from Dots attitude. "Woah, Dot, calm down!" He said.

Dot looked over to Jpg with a look that was mixed with grief and anger. However, it was obvious her anger was non-existent and was only a mask. "It's for his own good." She said, her voice quavering. Jpg paused and pursed his lips, knowing this was true. Although, none of this didn't stop Gary from fighting back. Immediately, he ripped his arm away from Dot, grabbed the glue, and ran past them both, surprising them. "Gary!" Dot yelled after him.

Gary ran out the door, not wanting them to take these pieces. He wasn't sure why they wanted them so much, but he had to assume they were important and were the key to why everything didn't make sense to him. He had to know, he didn't care if it will hurt him like what they had said.

Turning to look behind him, he saw Dot and Jpg chasing after him and immediately, panic flared up in his chest and he forced himself to run faster, despite his lungs and legs already burning. Breathing heavily, he took a sharp turn and ran past come cubicles he didn't remember being down this particular hallway. However, he didn't give it much thought at all and only continued to run, making his escape to somewhere else. Looking around, he saw some more agents wondering about, turning to see what was happening. Gary immediately noticed that most of these agents were missing their facial features and only a large constantly scribble was in place of where their faces were supposed to be.

There were other agents that had the same carbon copy faces, giving that same eerie smile from before. Gary quickly looked away and thought he should keep his attention to the front of him, lest he runs into something again.  
"GARY, STOP!" Dot yelled. "PLEASE, STOP! IM BEGGING YOU!" She continued. "STOP, STOP, PLEASE!" Gary pursed his lips and took another sharp turn, sliding on the floor and pushing himself from the wall to go faster. Soon, Dots yells began to sound like there were two of her. One of them yelling at him to stop and another... Much more muffled. He couldn't understand what the other voice was saying. Although, he opted to ignore it and continued running. "GARY!!" Dot shrieked, her voice sounding more distant.

Turning back around, he saw that he was beginning to lose them... And realized that he was beginning to lose his breath. Quickly, he looked in front of him and looked for anywhere to stop, he couldn't keep running, he was getting too tired. Running turned into jogging and soon he came to stop, letting out heavy laboured breaths. "God, I haven't run like that in years..." Gary said in his laboured breaths. Soon, he heard two pairs of footsteps coming closer and immediately, he turned his head and saw a door, grabbing the handle and wiggling it, checking if it was open and to his surprise it was. Quickly, he slinked inside and shut the door quietly. Locking the door, he rested his head against it and listened carefully.

"Guy, we need to split up and find him." Dot said in a panicked voice. "We can't let him fix those pieces." There was a short pause before Dot let out a breath and then a sob. "God, we should have thrown out those pieces when we had the chance..."  
"Look, we didn't know at the time. They were only in pieces and he had some of the important ones to really realize what it was." Jpg assured. "Now, come on. He couldn't have gotten too far."

Gary listened to their footsteps leave the area, waiting for it to become quiet. As soon as it did, he let out a sigh and then a groan, turning around and resting his back against the door. He breathed out heavily, placing his hand on his chest. He couldn't believe he had outrun Dot and Jpg, of all people. They were both much faster than he ever could have ever been, especially Jpg. Swallowing hard, he glanced around the room he was in and furrowed his eyebrows.

He was in a closet. Again, he listened carefully for Dot and Jpg. As he did, he saw more of those little cogs spring up into thin air and he simply swatted at them. They squeaked and floated away. Quickly, he opened the door and glanced around, making sure they were not around and once making sure, he crept out and left the door open, making his way back to the lab. He had a feeling they wouldn't make their way back.

As he rushed his way back, sort of paused at a voice he recognized. Tilting his head, he tried to pinpoint on where exactly it was coming from. However, it sounded like it was coming from all over... And it sounded like... Rookie? Spinning around as he sped walked down the hall, he tried searching for any sign of Rookie but didn't find any.

Rookie sounded panicked and as if he was running. Gary hoped that Rookie was okay and he didn't know where he was. So, he continued rushing back to the lab, ignoring everything around him. He didn't want to look at the agents or listen to anything around him. He just needed to keep going and put these pieces together. He needed to know what was going on and he had a feeling this thing had something to do with everything happening here and seeing the way Dot and Jpg acted only fueled his suspicions.

Once reaching the lab, he peeked inside and saw that there was no one inside, much to his surprise and quickly went in, locking the door behind him. He rushed back to the desk and pulled out the bag and spilled the contents once more, the pieces clattering against the table. He reached into his lab coat pocket and pulled out his glue and placed it nearby as he immediately went to work on piecing this thing together.

The same voices came up once more and he tried to ignore them. He needed to in order to focus and that was extremely difficult. However, these voices were different. They were Dot's voices once again. He knew she was yelling at him about something, but he couldn't understand what she was saying. She sounded like a muffled yell between a buzzing sound that had made itself much more known than before. He picked up some pieces and placed the fitting ones onto what was assumed to be the base, gluing them down. He continued and continued this strange jigsaw puzzle, fitting all the pieces back into where they previously were.

He continued to place and glue, place and glue, place and glue, not caring that now Dot was sounding more panicked and crying out his name. He didn't know where she was and she didn't sound like she was outside the door. She sounded like she was... Outside. Somewhere he couldn't see or reach. Somewhere that didn't exist to him.

Soon, he glued the last piece onto the object and stopped. He looked down at the object and stepped back, staring at the object for a long time. It felt weird to stare at this object as a sudden large amount of memory began to spring back at him, hitting him like a truck. He remembered everything just by seeing this little object in front of him. "Oh, god." he quietly spoke to himself, stepping back once more.

It was a gem... A Soul Gem.

He placed his hand onto his chest and grabbed his shirt and tie. "No... No, this can't be true," he said, his hand beginning shake. "When did this happen?" he asked. "When did..." he breathed out and stared at his soul gem, once shattered and now glued back together. However, glue wouldn't bring it back. Nothing will ever bring him back. He breathed out a shaky breath and held his head, stepping backwards and resting against the wall and sliding down to the floor.

Gary breathed out and paused, soon chuckling to himself. "So, that's what I was forgetting." Gary idly said to himself. "I completely forgot I was a part of everything and that it actually existed." He continued, letting out a sob, the sharp pain in his head that was once there was now fading into obscurity, now only becoming a dull pain. Suddenly, he heard banging on the lab door and heard Dot's and Jpg's voice. They yelled at him to open the door and to let them in. However, Gary ignored them. They weren't real. None of this was real. It was all just a figment of what was left of him, his mind giving him a space to hide. As a means to escape and preserve what was left.

He breathed out a laugh that was quickly followed by a sob and placed his hand onto his forehead. "If I'm like that, then that only means one thing." he quietly said to himself. He chuckled as tears streamed down his face, memories of what happened before flooding back to him. No wonder. It really was his fault. He shouldn't have agreed to join. Once he realized how pointless everything was, he snapped. He knew that it was a loop and that they were trapped within it. Nothing mattered and they were only going to repeat the same things over and over again, always afraid that they will someday lose their lives in battle.

However, it was inevitable. That creature said it itself.

"All magical girls eventually turn into a witch..." he echoed, smiling as he did. He breathed out a laugh and stared up at the ceiling, his tears now flowing freely. He took off his glasses and placed them down beside him, closing his eyes. He listened to Dot's and Jpg's voices, listening to their yelling and arguing voices that soon began to fade away like everything else around him. He breathed out a laugh and smile. They were right. He would have been better off unaware... But he knew he would have figured out eventually. He sighed and paused for a short moment. "It was inevitable," Gary whispered to himself.

Soon, a deep and disgusting feeling of grief and anger hit him and he opened his eyes, only to see that he was completely blind. He listened for anything around him, unsure what was going on and suddenly felt something hit him hard, making him cry out in pain, throwing his arms around in a panic. He wasn't sure what hit him but whatever did it was out to kill him and he knew it... He wasn't going to let that happen. He noticed his sense of hearing was much more powerful than he ever knew it was before he heard every little sound this thing had made and he went for it every time it made it sound. He growled and soon felt something hit him once again. This time he yelled in frustration. It felt like he had been doing this for a while now and he was getting frustrated that he couldn't find the source of this nuisance.

He heard it yelp and yell as he attacked, him hearing it throw its own attacks at him, landing successful hits on him. Whatever it was, it was very good at hiding and being quiet and he was beginning to panic the more hits it landed on him. He swung his arms around erratically and again felt like he got a hit on it... Grabbing whatever it was and crushing it in his hand. The sound of crushing metal was heard as the sound of metal screeching was heard. He smiled and opened his hand, hearing whatever he had crushed fall to the ground. Suddenly, another hit got him on the back and he yelled in pain and then another was quickly followed, hitting him on the side of his head and then his stomach, making him scream out and fall over.

Now scared, Gary tried to pull himself back up only to be hit once more, keeping him down and this time it really hurt and he was getting weak. He didn't want to die, he was scared. However, there was a long pause and he heard a voice.  
"Gary...? Gary, are you there?" a feminine voice called out. "Please, I know you're still in there... Please." Immediately, Gary lunged out at the voice swatting the air and the ground with his extra limbs, hearing the creature swiftly make its escape. He groaned in frustration and continued swatting and grabbing whatever his hands can reach. "Please! Please, Gary, I don't want to hurt you! Please come back!" the voice continued.

Again, Gary grabbed at the air and again felt another hit, making him cry out in pain, feeling himself getting weaker. He breathed out and listened carefully, trying to pinpoint wherever this creature had run off too. Again, there was a long pause and the voice sounded up once again. "Plea-- gHK--!" Gary immediately grabbed the creature and without hesitation, crushed it his hands, hearing it scream and soon the sound of glass shattering along with the sound of a sickening crunch. He felt a wet feeling on his hand and felt disgusted, waiting for any sort of response from the creature.

However, there was no response. So, he dropped the creature, its body hitting the ground with a dull thud. He had no interest with it, much less with consuming it. He will leave it for whatever else will find this creature... He has some work to do. There was something here in his labyrinth with him and he had to get rid of it and he had no time to give this creature any kind of attention of his.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I'm dying thank you for reading


End file.
